The new rule requires that mine-site and state-sponsored teams train semi-annually at small mines, rather than annually, and state employees who are members of state-sponsored teams participate in two mine rescue contests annually.
The Labor secretary is scheduled to speak June 29 during a General Session of the annual conference at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) recently announced that an administrative law judge of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission has approved a settlement between MSHA and Tri-Star Mining Inc. regarding an April 2007 highwall failure that resulted in the death of two coal miners at Tri-Star Mining's western Maryland surface operation. The mine operator will pay a total of $105,324 in penalties.
The alleged failure to protect its employees from potential trenching and excavation hazards has brought H & H Plumbing & Utilities Inc. $46,200 in proposed penalties from OSHA following an inspection at the company's worksite in Edmond.
OSHA has cited a Cambridge, Mass., contractor for alleged willful and serious violations of safety and health standards after three of its employees were overcome by lack of oxygen on Oct. 20, 2008, while cleaning underground steam pipes on the Boston College campus in Newton, Mass. Thomas G. Gallagher Inc. faces a total of $71,000 in proposed fines.
The biggest news in U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis' first semiannual regulatory agenda is no news: Nothing big was promised, just a little forward progress on long-awaited rules.
OSHA has cited Metalor Technologies for 10 alleged serious violations of safety standards, with $46,500 in fines, following an inspection prompted by a Nov. 7, 2008, chlorine gas leak at the company's North Attleboro, Mass., metals refining plant.
The Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has issued a closure order under Section 104(b) of the Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 (Mine Act) to Snapco Inc. of Buchanan County, Va., after the mine operator failed to pay $396,576.84 in delinquent penalties and then ignored a demand to correct the failure. The order closes production at the company's Mine Number 2; the penalties stem from at least 360 violations cited at that operation.
U.S. Labor Secretary Solis also announced OSHA is moving forward the proposed regulation governing workers' exposure to diacetyl food flavoring by convening a Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) panel May 5.
"No matter how attractive they may appear, active and abandoned mines are not playgrounds. If you're not trained or authorized to enter the property, stay away," said Michael A. Davis, MSHA's deputy assistant secretary of labor for operations.
OSHA is proposing one willful and four serious safety violations against B&H Contracting Inc. following an inspection at the company's jobsite in Dothan., Ala.
The agency yesterday asked coal mine companies to offer help in the research, which will examine methane accumulation in sealed areas like the one that exploded in the Sago Mine, depicted here, in January 2006.
The latest workplace safety and health information will be showcased at the Region X VPPPA Conference, scheduled for May 19-21, 2009 at the Davenport Hotel and Tower in Spokane, WA.
The total penalty includes an other-than-serious proposed fine of $3,500 because the company allegedly failed to notify OSHA of the fatality within eight hours of the incident.
Among other things, the agency's new, 51-page guidance document explains how to use Assigned Protection Factors numbers and Maximum Use Concentration limits, per the 2006 revisions to its Respiratory Protection standard.
The effect of the federal economic stimulus package on the construction industry will be the main topic discussed at a meeting of OSHA's Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health (ACCSH), April 14-17, 2009 in Washington, D.C.
University of Utah scientists devised a new method, illustrated in this diagram, to find trapped miners that involves installing iron plates and sledgehammers at regular intervals inside mines, and sensitive listening devices on the ground overhead.
"I'm calling upon the region's employers to review their excavation safety procedures to ensure that no employee enters an excavation unless and until it is properly guarded against collapse," said Arthur Dube, OSHA's area director in Buffalo, N.Y.
Other alleged violations of the Florida company include not developing lockout/tagout procedures on packaging machines to prevent accidental machinery start-up; exposing employees to electrical hazards; and using high-pressure compressed air for cleaning purposes.